‘Not helpful’ for Trump and others to talk about pets being eaten, Ohio's governor says

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Sunday that "it is not helpful" for fellow Republicans including former President Donald Trump to spread "garbage" claims that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and cats stolen from the streets of Springfield, Ohio.

"We need to focus on what is important," DeWine said on ABC's "This Week" in batting down claims that were repeatedly spread by Trump and others in recent weeks, statements that have led to threats against the Haitians who have flocked to the Ohio community between Columbus and Dayton in recent years.

"There’s a lot of garbage on the internet," he said, "and, you know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all."

DeWine said that the Haitians in Springfield have a right to be there, and that they are welcome there.

"What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal," he told host Martha Raddatz. "They came to Springfield to work. Ohio is on the move, and Springfield has really made a great resurgence with a lot of companies coming in. These Haitians came in to work for these companies. What the companies tell us is that they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there. And, frankly, that’s helped the economy."

DeWine also said that the influx of thousands of migrants in recent years has taxed the community's resources and that Ohio was seeking help for that.

"We have challenges every day. We are working on these challenges," said DeWine, who is backing Trump for president.

Stories of immigrants eating pets began circulating on the Internet weeks ago, and they gained momentum when brought up by vice presidential nominee JD Vance, an Ohio Republican, and then Trump in last week's debate with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Critics have not only noted that these claims are untrue, but also seem clearly designed to demonize Haitians and other immigrants.

"In his elevation of something akin to blood libel," Lydia Polgreen wrote of Trump in a New York Times opinion piece , "against a group of blameless legal immigrants who came to America from their strife-torn nation in search of a better life through hard work, like so many immigrants to our shores before them, he has proved himself a dangerous and malevolent figure."